If you know a guy who is a really decent, nice guy, but is a real jerk when he's drunk... and you come across him at some annual party, and he's drunk, and being a jerk... then what do you think about him?

Do you think, "He's a really jerk"?

No, of course not.

You think, "Ah, it's just the liquor."

We all know that alcohol and intoxicants change your biochemistry, how you act, and your personality. And we cut people a bit of slack for acting differently than normal on those sorts of things.

So... if you're able to cut Bob some slack for being a mean drunk, how come you don't cut yourself some slack when your biochemistry is off?

I woke in an absolute fog today, and had almost no willpower and was generally feeling a hazy fog. I was wondering what was wrong with me... until I realized I hadn't had caffeine. I took caffeine, and half an hour later I'm good.

This is obvious in the case of someone who has a mild addiction with withdrawal effects (caffeine, nicotine), but it's also true with diet, sleep patterns, and exercise.

If you're feeling low energy and run down, do you beat yourself up over it? Do you wonder why you're not doing more?

Or do you think, "Well, how's my biochemistry? How are the foods I'm eating, how's my movement and exercise, how's my sleep quality?"

For whatever reason, it's tempting to self-judge instead of analyze when we feel low and run down, and to extrapolate about our personality and work ethic and character. Biut to some extent that's nonsense -- you don't get mad a car for running without gasoline, you don't get mad at a lamp for not giving you light if it's not plugged into a power outlet, and you shouldn't get mad at yourself for feeling run down if you're not taking care of your biochemistry.

Next time you're low, take a quick scan through your mix of movement/exercise, eating, sleep quality, and other biochemistry. It's probably a tremendous part of why you're feeling the way you are.

It's hard to draw a clear line between biochemistry (in the sense you are using it - short term changes in your brain's chemical make up) and your brain's long term state based on genetics. I always strongly disagreed with this position until I read this piece by David Eagleman.

He talks about how Charles Whitman (who went on a shooting rampage at the University of Texas) was a completely normal, straight A student until months before the incident. He wrote in his diary about a weird sensation coming over him: an insurmountable urge to kill. He asked to donate his body to science to examine his brain to see if anything had changed. Sure enough, after killing 13 people and himself, scientists found an enormous tumor pressing on his amygdala.

It's easy to have some forgiveness for Whitman, as we can somewhat sympathize with his situation. If it could happen to him, maybe it could happen to us. That's one end of the spectrum. But Eagleman raises another point - what's the difference between a tumor changing his brain and someone else whose brain is naturally predisposed to bad behaviour. I like to believe in free will, but the evidence of the correlation between brain chemistry and behaviour is pretty strong. I'm struggling a bit with where I'm comfortable drawing the line.

I'm struggling to figure this issue out myself. One of the major themes of the 'War in Heaven' is the war of the physical self and the abstract self (soul). Which one is king? How much does one affect the other? Up to now I thought it a 51/49 split between soul and body but after reading this and thinking about it more I'm thinking it may be a dynamic sliding scale depending on situation. If you take a sleeping pill/drugs then the balance becomes 0 soul/100 body as no amount of willpower I've seen yet can negate the effects of drugs thru will alone (if you can negate pharmaceuticals thru willpower alone you're an exception :D ). Yet in another situation if anxiety wells up before something stressful it may be 51 soul/49 body starting out but as you remove limiting beliefs and re-frame perceptions in your brain the anxiety starts fading and it may become 90 soul/10 body.

We are strange creatures indeed. Maybe the solution is to find peace in the fact that despite we have consciousness and will all of it can be taken away at any moment thru the adjustment of body parts and chemicals?

I am doing P90X, I am on the last month. It has been hard, but yesterday I felt extremely off and tired. I missed the workout and now my 6 day a week schedule is off. I know exactly how this feels because tracking makes you accountable. I never thought about it in terms of biochemistry, but some days its just too easy to beat yourself up and then turn it into a spiral downwards. This is a useful hack.

With broccoli, I like to stir fry a whole big lot at a time. Maybe when you're chatting/watching tv with your s.o. or doing other low maintenance work? Then later in the week I just need to pull it out, heat it up and eat. Not perfect, but the only way I can get my broccoli fix. I do juicing once in a while, but juiced broccoli is yuck. I do like juiced leafies though (spinach, kale, etc).

I have a file that I look at when I'm feeling useless in some way or another. It has some quotes that I think are likely to motivate helpful thought, a quick checklist of coffee/vitamins/food/water, some ideas for things to do, and a couple personal prompts.

The formatting here is somewhat screwed up, but here goes. Tell me if I'm breaking something with all of the text and I'll try to fix it.

Use whatever you want from this -- you don't have to go through it all, and gloss over what doesn't help. Stop at any point you feel it's good to do so. Being open with people and allowing them to have whatever judgments they may is an option.Quotes:
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Often I have found the one thing that can save is the thing which appears most to threaten. One has to go down into what one most fears and in the process... comes a saving flicker of light and energy that, even if it does not produce the courage of a hero, at any rate enables a trembling mortal to take one step further.

When you’re in an earthquake on a unicycle, juggling chain saws, the only way to survive is to tack down everything you can tack down, so you can deal with what you can’t.

The old Wizard’s thoughts raced. There was a path through this. There was a path through everything … Yet one more lesson learned at Kellhus’s punishing hand.

Miles looked up at his father. "Did . . . I do the right thing, sir? Last night?" "Yes," said the count simply. "A right thing. Perhaps not the best of all possible right things. Three days from now you may think of a cleverer tactic, but you were the man on the ground at the time."

Speed and precision are the key ingredients to effective motion in the martial arts, and being relaxed allows for maximum control and focus. Might this be true anywhere else? You don’t break boards or bricks with the greatest efficiency if you’re uptight. Or handle four people who jump you in a dark alley. Or negotiate a deal. Or have the most appropriately deep and meaningful and risky conversation with your partner, your spouse, or your son. You’d better be relaxed. Find out what’s stressing you, and deal with it—now—if you want to be truly effective on all levels at once. Being relaxed and capable of focusing on what’s at hand, when it’s at hand, without over- or underreacting, is a master skill. It’s the context for accessing the greatest power.

Figure out if there's an obvious reason that you're not feeling well.

Not drinking coffee/vitamins on schedule?

Food? Water?

What do I feel like doing right now? Do that. Getting things done may make you feel better, and will help your future self out regardless. Suggestions:

Lots of things change our biochemistry. Air, water, smoke, coffee, prescription drugs, etc. But, the remarkable thing is that our biochemistry also changes in response to our envioronment including sounds and music, cramped versus open spaces, lightness and darkness. This time of year people in countries in the Northern Hemisphere suffer from seasonal affect disorder -- because their mood (e.g., caused by biochemistry) changes in response to the reduced hours of light during the day and increased inclimate weather. Understanding all of that and adopting a holistic view of your body and controlling it is the challenge.

You are completely right, however. Movement, exercise, quality sleep, and eating healthy foods are all ways to control your biochemistry in a positive way and maintain an upbeat and positive mood. In addition, meditation, prayer, yoga and other introspective practices also provide greater/deeper insights -- perhaps even insights into the soul and Nirvana.

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His situation is interesting. Not too long ago, he lost his job and got divorced, and otherwise his life got pretty screwed up and off-track.

He left the United States, took a job below his old skill level for a while, and then stopped that and started a company. Now he's living an exceptional life, and on the verge of making a lot of money.

I thought that was awesome, and I was quite happy for him. After we'd gotten done going through a lot of numbers, choosing some vendors, designing some systems, and otherwise figuring business out on the phone, we talked personal life. I said, "Man, I'm so happy for you. So much is going right. Congratulations."

I think that some might be surprised to hear how much I sleep and how important it is to me. I average right around eight hours per day (tracked for a few months), and prioritize sleep very strongly, even over most work.

Once ten pm comes around, I have four options for things I'm allowed to do: I can play violin, read a book, work, or sleep. Computer is off at midnight every day, at which point I usually read for an hour or two, and then go to sleep.

The other night I was tired at ten, but I was really excited about my work so I tried to push through and keep at it. I was stuck trying to fix something, but I managed to try five or ten solutions out before getting in bed. At the time, it felt like a good choice.

I woke up the next morning, took one look at the code, and spotted the solution instantly. Within five minutes it was fixed. Once is a fluke, but I've noticed this pattern over and over again with work when I'm tired-- it feels like I'm working, but often I'm just spinning my wheels.